A shorted DMR reproduce head for reproducing signals recorded in a magnetic recording medium is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,038 issued Mar. 9, 1993 to Smith. The shorted DMR head includes a pair of identical magnetoresistive (MR) stripes separated by a non-magnetic conductive spacer. Sputtered titanium has been employed as the conductive spacer material. The resistivity of sputtered titanium is about 100 .mu..OMEGA.-cm and the resulting shorted DMR reproduce head suffers from a roughly 40% signal loss due to current shunting in the head. The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a shorted DMR reproduce head with reduced signal loss.